The board of directors of the Aluminum Bahrain Company, Alba, will meet soon to discuss the feasibility study for increasing the company’s production capacity by 50 percent. Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper has reported that the company is planning to raise its aluminum output from the present 500,000 tons to 750,000 tons annually. These feasibility studies were jointly prepared by a technical staff from Alba and the Kyzer Engineering Company.

Alba currently controls 4 percent of the world’s total aluminum production, which is equivalent to 20 million tons annually. If it in fact implements the planned expansion project, Alba will become the 2nd largest aluminum manufacturer in the world. Alba, which has recently merged with the Bahraini-Saudi Aluminum Marketing Company, has invested nearly $1.5 billion since the beginning of the nineties, in an effort to supplement its production. — (Albawaba-MEBG)